Theories of Loss, Life Events and Negative Thinking Flashcards
What is loss?
State of being deprived of, or being without, something one has had.
What can be ‘lost’?
- Person
- Object
- Body part
- Ability
- Function
- Role
- Hope
Losses are often multiple
What is the critical variable of loss?
The unexpectedness of loss - it takes a lot of adjustment for a person.
What is grief?
Grief is the pain and suffering experienced after loss, experienced in all cultures but manifestations vary.
How has grief literature changed over time?
Once said that you suffered grief following less then recovered. Hwoever, now we know everyone deals with grief differently, and some people may never fully recover and others recover quicker than others.
What is mourning?
The period of time during which signs of grief are visible, culturally specific - may involve rituals, clothing, prayers, lasts for different amount of time.
What is sanitizing language?
Eg. “They’ve passed away”
“They’ve moved onto a better place”
Used a lot in medicine, not always very helpful.
What is bereavement?
The process of losing a close relationship
How should grief be presented/managed in children?
Children are capable of understanding more than we expect. They need to be ‘allowed’ to make their own meaning of loss, they are resilient.
Children deserve honesty/truth, and the best thing to do with them is allow them to understand and listen to them.
What is the acute grief response?
- Disbelief
- Agitation
- Anger
- Crying
- Aimless activity/underactivity
- Illusions or hallucinations
- Preoccupation with images of lost person
What are longer term grief responses?
- Social withdrawal
- Sleep disturbance
- Restlessness or anxiety
- Decreased concentration
- Appetite changes
- Depressed mood
What is the Kübler-Ross model?
D A B D A
Describe the idea of the shift from severing bonds to continuing bonds (Klass, Silverman, Nickmann 1996)
- Tradiitonal grief theories have assumed ‘successful grieving’ requires withdrawal of psychic energy from the loved one
- Newer theories recognise frequently adapting role of maintaining a continuing bond with the deceased
- People continue their bond with the dead person, but in a different way from before
Focus on facilitating grief needs to be on how to change connections to hold the relationship in a new perspective, rather than on how to separate.
What is catharsis and how has the view on this changed in evolving grief theories?
Catharsis is a way to get rid of energy/emotion eg punching a pillow, newer grief theories suggest it doesn’t actually make things better.
Instead, focus on emotion with greater attention to the cognitive and meaning-making process involved in mourning.
Why is there no necessary endpoint in grieving?
Traditional theories have posited a point of ‘closure’ in grieving.
Newer theories challenge the assumption that there is any discernible end point in grieving, positing instead that the bereaved are engaged in an ongoing renegotiation of meaning over time.
